Chapter 5: C01ns and Karts Part 3: Ready! Steady!! G0!!!

3!

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2!!

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1!!!

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*GO*!!!!!!

Both the announcer and the crowd said with excitement as most racers sped up and go full throttle quickly overtaking us along with Vegant's team and entering a tunnel. Those in front who are new to the grand prix scoffed at us even laughing at how the 3 time reigning champion of this minigame was getting left behind by literal newbies and you couldn't blame them because without the help of Bonne we would have been acting the same way. Vegant looks as though he didn't care and keeps looking forward; in contrast to his warm demeanor before the race, Vegant was in a cold and deep trance focused only on nothing but the race track. I yelled at Adam to let him out of whatever trance he's put him in, because I thought Vegant was being controlled but Adam looked at me plainly and said that he'd done nothing to him and that Vegant has always been like this.

As we exited the tunnel, the Crowd was given a poll. "Out of the 9 Racers this year, who would you vote to win" How do I know this? Well we Co-Drivers were notified of it and uh it seems that we only had two votes total and, although it was an anonymous vote, I am pretty sure that one of those votes was from Bonne. While I was distracted telling the poll results to Her0, I failed to notice that there were two teams that had sandwiched us in the middle of them; The pair called the CrashTeam who seemed to have a Forest Badger theme on which was blocking our behind and the other was the N4S team which had a theme of Urban Cyberpunk on their Kart and was also blocking the front of our Kart.

Thanks to these guys, we couldn't Accelerate or Decelerate and as doing so assures our elimination; after all, lives don't matter here. "AAAAARRGHHHH!!!! Why won't these two move" Her0 said in an annoyed tone, as the two teams closed in on us from both sides. Her0 steered to the right and they followed, Her0 steered to the left and they followed. "Why would they close in? Aren't they going to get eliminated too?" I said, confused as to why these two would commit basically a Kamikaze until I saw Adam from in front of us flipping us off while laughing hysterically. Suddenly the two teams' Co Driver screamed in unison "BOUNCE SHIELD! ACTIVATE!!!".

Bounce shield is a 3 star Item which is commonly used as it causes other players to bounce away from you. It is very useful for keeping other players from getting within 2 meters of you. However in this situation, we'd be bouncing from one shield to another infinitely causing our Kart to crash. I told Her0 to dodge them both by continuing to sway from side to side but as they got closer and closer Her0 began slowing down and how could they not? we had no room to do so anymore.

"Hey Marla~!" Her0 said, looking back at me with a sly smile on their face

"Why are you looking at me like that!" I asked cautiously

"I have a plan!" "Dear lord. What is it this time?" I asked in a scared and weary tone.

"I swear it's not dangerous... Okay maybe a little dangerous" I couldn't disagree with anything that they were saying as we had no choice and as we stopped swerving from side to side they spent no time to both speed up and slow down. I braced myself for the both the crash and/or whatever it is that this knucklehead thinks would work. 

BOIIIINNGG!!! Our Kart had went as we had bounced to the skies, surprising both teams who had bumped into each other; We celebrated and I hugged my friend in excitement but it wasn't long until one of those two teams bumped into us in the air, launching us far away. It caused us to catch up with the 4th fastest racer who was surprisingly Vegant and Adam who had swapped places with Vegant inside a chamber whi h seemingly preserves his energy. We fell right next to them, startling Adam who began wondering how we caught up so fast

"Oh I don't know? Maybe next time don't have your lackeys use trampolines for shields" Her0 said filled with pride in themself. Adam didn't seem to particularly like that because his face had become red with anger; he pulls out a stun gun from his inventory and tells us how we had pissed him off too much and now he threatens to shoot us if we proceed any further. We weren't going to let him win of course and thus we decelerated, and as he laughed and laughed I began planning by first taking a look at my items. I had my golden 5 star Portable Laser Railgun, a pair of sticky bombs, and a maximum of 2 stamina potions... What a pitiable inventory.

Her0 told me that I should make the plan because they were going to focus on the driving part of the race and because the mana consumption is still a bit new for them it's still taking a toll on their body. I assured them that I'd do but with these items there was only really one plan I could execute, maybe I shouldn't have sold most of my items for coins at the market. and thus I thought of executing it as soon as possible.

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I told Her0 to get as close to Adam as possible so I could aim better but I've come to find out that it wasn't as easy as I thought as he had already pulled out a skill with a circle that enveloped an area around their Kart. Soon a pair of racers from the front had begun to slow down because their stamina had now reached low levels; unfortunately for them and fortunately for him, they'd reached the Area of Effect of the skill. The skill had suddenly created 2 holographic Flame thrusters that despite their looks had produced real fire. the two had pulled out items of their own but as soon as they entered the AOE it negated all skills and item effects. The Thrusters burst out a stream of Hellfire, burning the poor contestants and their screams were heard across the stadium as their skin burned to a crisp, they pleaded that Adam stop but he had then drove at their pace for their suffering to continue until there were no traces of them left but their charred remains. "Looks like contestant Adam began using his skill FORTRESS KING and oh my it is terrifying" the announce said over the PA system. It was a skill that eliminated any enemy that got inside the circle and negated all skills and items within it that the owner doesn't consider his/her property.

My plans have now become futile because the bombs wouldn't detonate inside or make Adam's Kart stick in place. There was no way I could beat him now because I know that if we even as much as take a step of our Kart in that circle we would be annihalatead by this abusive, narcissistic, b@st@rd. I had to think of a way to get Adam off the race or slow him down at least because to me he doesn't deserve to win at anything, I want him to understand how helpless he made Bonne feel, I want to beat him, I want to prove a point, I want to prove to that dirtbag that he can't do sh*t, and I want to...

to...

No... We didn't even ask Bonne about what she would want to happen to Adam, she didn't plead for us to beat him, she didn't even ask us to win against him. She wanted her skills to be recognized by the world, she wanted to escape him... And why should I tell her what to do. I may not agree with it but it is the easier way for her to get away from him in the real world and in the Virtual world... And thus I began forming my plan, while I didn't have to do anything to harm him, I still wanted to teach him a lesson, make a statement that he doesn't own Bonne or her creation... Bonne!

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It was a long shot but we had to try soI told Her0 "Her0, I have a plan but there's a high chance that this won't work however, if it does..."

"We'll beat Adam?" Her0 said to me with a determined smile, filled with trust. And with an uplifting tone I yell out "Yeah, we'll beat Adam!"

I commanded that Her0 charge forward and thus our plan got into motion. Adam saw us approaching and screamed at us that if we were to approach any closer that his flame thrusters will consider us a threat burn us to a crisp to seemingly scare us off; of course we didn't listen to him and came closer and closer towards the Area of Effect. He laughed hysterically, thinking that we had given up hope and were rushing to our deaths; I couldn't care less about him anymore because my plan doesn't involve him being harmed.

Just before we reached the edge of the FORTRESS KING'S AOE I stood up from my seat, pulled out my Sticky bombs, and readied myself as we entered the circle; I activated the HIGH JUMP skill and jumped forward as far and as high as I could. The thrusters aimed at me as I approached Adam's Kart and fired at me

FWOOOOOSSSSHHH!!!! The flames went as Adam looked forward, content that I wouldn't be a nuisance anymore. What he didn't know was I was more clever than that.

I threw the sticky bomb behind me and BOOM! It went, even though it leaves a sticky aftermath, it is still a bomb with a wind box that launches a player from the area of impact which I used to my advantage. Not only did it launch me further, it also cleared the flames for Her0 who dodged the bomb's aftermath.

Adam was surprised but he looked sure that he'd win because the thrusters were going to aim at Her0 and incinerate them. But his smugness turned into surprise as Her0 drove right beside him without the thrusters targeting them. Dumbfounded he tried to activate the skill manually, a futile attempt to control an automated skill. He slammed and banged on his Kart's hood cursing his skill for not working as intended, and as he did I pulled my Laser gun and pointed it right at him and I said in a cold and unwavered voice "Do you wanna know why it won't target me and my friend there? To answer that why don't you tell me..." I sat and got close to his ears to whisper "Why do you consider Bonne's creations to still be yours."

He told me to shut up and I was just a brat who got lucky that his skill was bugged and that according to the rules I won't even be able to harm him. "I know... but you aren't my target" I dispersed my weapon back into my inventory and turned around to click Vegant's chamber's open button. FFSSSHHH The chamber opened waking Vegant up who asked what had occured in his sleep. I caught him up so far with a summarized version of the current situation; "So Mr. Asva here's the sitch. My name is Marla and Mr. Adam here activated FORTRESS KING and burned a pair of racers into embers, and he threatened to do the same to my friend and I. He also shot us earlier with a stun gun." Vegant processed the situation and as Adam was driving, argued with him over how bad of a person he is for doing what he did. Vegant demanded that Adam stop the car as he doesn't want to continue the race with dirt on his hands, but Adam protested saying that he'll stop sponsoring Vegant to which Vegant couldn't give the least amount of care about.

"Mr. Asva may I?" I asked of him to which Vegant nodded. I pulled out my last remaining Sticky bomb and yelled out to Her0 "HER0 GET READY!!!" After I said so they sped up until they reached the front of Adam's Kart

"Mr. Asva, you might want to jump the vehicle now because I have a lesson to teach Adam that I want to stick"

"You are an honorable person Marla, I respect you kids like you so make the lesson clear to him for me 'kay"

"You got it sir"

With that, Asva used HIGH JUMP to exit the Kart and now that Adam is alone with Me and Her0. He demanded I stop whatever plan I was thinking of because there was no way for us to win if we don't have a Kart and that the moment I step out of here I will definitely burn and die.

"Do you really think I care about what happens to me? You've done worse to a friend of mine... And now I choose to repay that injustice a thousand times over"

I pulled the pin on the Sticky bomb and threw it as hard as I can, Her0 did an Akira slide to intentionally get hit by the sticky bomb. The bomb hit the ExcitedFalcon and then BOOM! An explosion of sticky goo now covered the road of the race.

"WHAT IS THIS!?!? THE EXCITEDFALCON TEAM HAS GIVEN UP THE RACE AND INTENTIONALLY CRASHED THEIR KART!!!" The announcer loudly said on the PA

"Welp bye now Adam, I kinda want to win this race now hehe" I told Adam as I strapped him as tight as I could right after I used HIGH JUMP to escape to the top of the wall of goo and right on the other side was Her0 who was now riding ExcitedFalcon (Bike mode). Her0 waved at me and as I hopped on the ExcitedFalcon once more, we cheered that we've beaten Adam and taught him a lesson

*!BOOMM!*

"Her0, What was that?"

"Flash bombs..."

"..."

"Don't worry, they only hurt the eyes"

We continued on with the race and pretty soon we started seeing racers who had run out of stamina and are passed out on the track and more racers slowing down at the front. For the last stretch we switched places because Her0 thought that I should be the one to win this for us.

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Surprisingly enough we reached the goal with no other racers in sight. We had won first place in the race with Bonne at the finish line to greet us, crying oh so softly and thanking us for letting her Kart shine in the Grand Prix and as we tok our place upon the stage to be awarded our trophy, I reached out to Bonne and pulled her up to celebrate with us and to lift the Trophy as this is just as much her victory as ours.

The race's prize included 1 3-star skill, a 4 star purple weapon and a +10 bonus points on our base speed and agility. For that we have paid Bonne in full and more and Finally she gave us the tickets

We waited with her at the station for the train and while we do, we ended up looking back at the entire race as a whole,how we trained and planned for the whole thing,basically, on the fly. But as we reached the end of our album the train came in and thus we parted ways. We said goodbye to Bonne as we headed inside and Bonne said thanks to us.

As we sat down I looked out the window to catch one last glimpse of the town we spent 4 days on and ponder on the fun we've had... But now that that's over I can finally go back to my goal of reaching the V01-D. I wanted to plan for my next step, but my fatigue caught up to me and I fell asleep alongside Her0. The sun had set, and it is time for night

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BEEP* (Robotic voice)

NeoGen database entry:

Username: Marla

Distance: 3500Km

Virus assignation: ILY

Expected time of arrival: 6 weeks, 2 days